Means for melting congealed liquid and for preventing congelation

ABSTRACT

A heat-conductive member having an upper portion in contact with a bath of hot cooking liquid is detachably mounted in a collector unit of a pressure cooking vessel and by its presence serves to melt congealed liquid in said unit and without interference with the normal functioning of the cooking operation.

United States Patent Pottinger et a].

'[451 June 6, 1972 MEANS FOR MELTING CONGEALED LIQUID AND FOR PREVENTINGCONGELATION Inventors: Eugene A. Pottinger, Louisville; Winston L.Shelton, Jeffersontown, both of Ky.

Assignee: Commercial Appliances, Inc.

Filed: Feb. 24, 1971 Appl. No.: 1 18,283

US. Cl ..99/408, 210/153 Int. Cl. ..A47j 37/12 Field of Search ..99/408,447, 446, 416, 418,

[56] References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 345,410 10/ l 904France ..99/416 66l,92l 4/[950 Great Britain .99/408 622,425 6/1961Canada 99/408 Primary Examiner-Leon GrMachlin Attorney-William E.Sherwood 57 ABSTRACT A heat-conductive member having an upper portion incontact with a bath of hot cooking liquid is detachably mounted in acollector unit of a pressure cooking vessel and by its presence servesto melt congealed liquid in said unit and without interference with thenormal functioning of the cooking operation.

2 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJuu 6 I972 M W u 7 v w a S H w /W///JA FIG. 1

FIG. 3

INVENTCRS EUGENE A. POTTINGER WINSTON L. SHELTON FIG. 2

ATTORNEY MEANS FOR MELTING CONGEALED LIQUID AND FOR PREVENTINGCONGELATION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the pressure frying ofvarious foods such as chicken, shrimp, potatoes or the like optimumoperation of the cooking apparatus requires that the particles of fooddetached from the breaded portions immersed in the hot cooking liquid besegregated from the liquid. In our copending application, Ser. No.76,557 filed Sept. 29, 1970 an improved pressure cooking apparatusincorporating a detachable collector unit is disclosed and a normaloperation for such an apparatus is described.

Under certain conditions, however, as when starting operations areconducted with the cooking vessel containing a body of liquid which maybe in partially or wholly congealed form, a delay in start-up may occurdue to the presence of congealed material in the collector unit. inaddition, it is important that the contents of the collector unit bekept in flowable fonn during the operation of the apparatus followingits start up. A requirement accordingly exists for a means which can notonly render the collector unit rapidly serviceable, as when theapparatus has rested overnight in a cold atmosphere with the vessel andcollector unit containing the necessary liquid material for the nextday's operation, but also which will maintain the serviceability of thatunit during the entire operation of the apparatus. Such means, moreover,should be simple and without requiring heating coils and withoutinterfering with the normal operation as described in theafore-mentioned application. it is a purpose of the present invention tosatisfy requirements of this nature.

SUMMARY A heat-conducting member formed of a material having a highcoefiicient of heat conductivity and of a size fitting within acollector unit and extendinginto a bath of hot cooking liquid containedin a vessel to which the collector unit is detachably secured representsan essential part of the invention. Preferably, the member comprises apair of interleaved bifurcated sheets of a metal, such as aluminum,which when mounted in combination with the vessel and the collector unitwill not interfere with the normal collecting function or the drainingof liquid from the unit.

Among the objects of the invention are the provision of an inexpensiveheat-conducting member suitable for melting congealed cooking liquid andfor preventing congelation of such liquid during the operation of apressure cooking apparatus; the provision of a heat-conducting memberadapted for ready insertion in or removal from a collector unit of apressure-cooking vessel; the provision of an improved heatconductingmember formed of interleaved bifurcated sheets of metal; and theprovision of a heat-conducting member which when arranged in combinationwith a vessel containing a hot cooking liquid and an attached collectorunit for receiving food particles dropping from the vessel will notinterfere with the normal operation of the combined cooking apparatus.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become moreapparent as the description proceeds and when considered in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings in which FIG. 1 is a sectional view of aportion of the cooking apparatus with the heat-conducting member inplace and shown in elevation,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 is aside elevation view of one of the leaves of the heat-conducting member.A

Referring now to FIG. 1, a pressure cooking apparatus of the typedisclosed in the afore-mentioned application and with which the presentinvention may be conveniently employed preferably comprises a stainlesssteel cooking vessel with a tubular wall 10. The lower wall portion 11slopes toward the central lower opening of the vessel and includes anannular boss 12 on the outer periphery of which a slot is formed forretention of an O-ring seal 13. A cup-shaped collector unit 14preferably formed of stainless steel has a smooth inner periphery at thetop and bears against the seal. The unit is detachably locked inoperative position with a conventional cam lock structure 15 mounted onthe lower side of the vessel wall portion 11. A plurality of handles 16projecting laterally from the collector unit enable that unit to beunlocked and removed at appropriate times. Also attached to the unitnear the top portion thereof is a downwardly inclined drain pipe 17having a valve 18 therein. v

Suitably supported from the upper portion of the cooking vessel is atubular perforated sleeve 20 serving as a shield for a plurality ofheating coils 21 suitably energized by an electrical control system;such coils being mounted on the inner surface of wall 10 and below thenormal level of the cooking liquid contained therein. A foraminous'basket 22 for containing food to be cooked is in turn mounted within thesleeve and as the coils heat the liquid a convection current of hotliquid, which for example may be at about 400 F, circulates within thevessel.

Particles of food dropping from the basket and having a specific gravitygreater than that of the heated liquid accordingly enter the collectorunit and are segregated from the main body of liquid and are kept fromcontact with the hot coils. When the collector unit is filled with foodparticles, or at the end of a days operation, the valve 18 is opened todrain liquid from the vessel and thereafter the unit is unlocked bymanipulation of the handles and is removed for cleaning of the collectedparticles therefrom. When, however, due to a congealing of the liquid inthe collector unit such particles are unable to move to the bottom ofthe unit, a less efficient operation will result. Some means, therefore,are required to insure that such congealing will not occur.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, a solution to this problem has beenfound in the provision of a heat-conductive member which by itsconstruction and presence in combination with the vessel and collectorunit insures that the intended segregation of the food particles willtake place. One simple, inexpensive and reliable means includes a pairof interleaved bifurcated sheets of generally rectangular form andfonned of aluminum. As seen in FIG. 3, one such sheet S comprises a topedge 30, parallel side edges 31, 32, and a central slot 33 extending atleast half of the length of the sheet from its bottom edges 34, 35. Thelength of the sheet is such that a substantial portion thereof extendsinto the vessel in contact with the hot liquid therein and convenientlythe upper end of the sheet may provide a support for the bottom of thebasket 22. The bottom edges of the sheet are supported by the bottom ofthe collector unit and significantly the edges 31, 32 of the sheet arespaced from the side wall of the collector unit so as to leave aperipheral space 36 providing communication between the sectors of thatunit and with the outlet pipe 17.

An identical sheet SS interleaved with sheet S in inverted positioncompletes the assembly and when installed in the collector unit theseinterleaved sheets do not interfere with the convection flow of the hotliquid in the vessel nor do they interfere with the uniform settling offood particles into the collector unit. By selecting a material ofappropriate high coefficient of heat conductivity, and of sufficientmass, for these sheets, congealing of cooking liquid in the collectorunit may be prevented during operation of the cooking apparatus and ifany congealed material is present at the start-up of the apparatus itwill be rapidly melted.

The described heat-conducting member is loosely positioned within thecollector unit and may be removed upwardly through the vessel, or remainwith the collector unit as it is detached from the vessel. Moreover, itmay be easily cleaned and maintained in sanitary condition. Thedescribed arrangement of sheets S and SS moreover serves to divide theinterior of the collector unit into substantially equal sectors and totransmit heat substantially uniformly to the contents of that unitwithin those sectors.

Obviously, other modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in the light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, tobe understood that within the scope of the appended claims the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. For use with a pressure cooking apparatus having a vessel containinga hot cooking liquid and with a hollow collector unit attached to alower portion of the vessel and adapted jointly to receive foodparticles dropping from said vessel and to serve as a drain for liquidfrom said vessel; the improvement comprising a heat-conducting memberdetachably supported within said unit and projecting into said vesseland receiving substantially all of its heat from its contact with saidliquid,

said member serving to conduct heat into the contents of said unit andto melt congealed liquid contained therein, said member comprising atleast one sheet of metallic material having a high coefficient of heatconductivity and with the side edges of said sheet being spaced from theside walls of said unit.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said member comprises a pairof bifurcated sheets of metallic material each having a high coefficientof heat conductivity, said sheets being detachably interfitted toprovide a uniform length of the assembled member and each having theirside edges spaced from the side walls of said unit.

* I. t i

1. For use with a pressure cooking apparatus having a vessel containinga hot cooking liquid and with a hollow collector unit attached to alower portion of the vessel and adapted jointly to receive foodparticles dropping from said vessel and to serve as a drain for liquidfrom said vessel; the improvement comprising a heat-conducting memberdetachably supported within said unit and projecting into said vesseland receiving substantially all of its heat from its contact with saidliquid, said member serving to conduct heat into the contents of saidunit and to melt congealed liquid contained therein, said membercomprising at least one sheet of metallic material having a highcoefficient of heat conductivity and with the side edges of said sheetbeing spaced from the side walls of said unit.
 2. Apparatus as definedin claim 1 wherein said member comprises a pair of bifurcated sheets ofmetallic material each having a high coefficient of heat conductivity,said sheets being detachably interfitted to provide a uniform length ofthe assembled member and each having their side edges spaced from theside walls of said unit.